Website Costs - How do discern what to pay

Web Programming costs are hard to discern. Do you buy a canned program? Do you opt for a customized version? Who writes the content? Is web content different to write than a good essay? How is it determined where your site will fall in the search engines?

The biggest differences I see with what we do and what others do is that we offer a lot of service taking care of all the details and we offer content development. I don't know any other firm that says yes, I will interview you, I will write content that mimics how you practice and I will make it sound like you are describing it to your customer. We don't stop there, once your business is up and running we will help develop content on an ongoing basis in order to keep your site high in the search engines and keep your customers interested. Plus that makes it easy for us to keep up on web changes, to do e-newsletters and to continue to use your website to market you. What we offer is very unique content but we take care of the details and make it really easy for you to focus on your business and we focus on keeping the business full of customers.

By centralizing the marketing, keeping up your site is a seamless process. If I write a press release for you, or you are running a special, I get it up there on the site right away. If you buy new equipment or offer some new service, I will see that as an opportunity to plug your website with more content. Most folks giving you a price on a website are only programming it. Not looking for opportunities to market your whole business on an ongoing basis.

I lost a website last year to a guy who got his site for $2K less. We still can't find his site on the web. It wasn't programmed with key words and wasn't registered with the search engines. It sits there with the same canned content today. His customers still can't find him on the web - so did he really save any money? Not only that but he didn't have anyone on the inside working for his business looking at how to integrate the website with his other customer service experiences.

The thing that is really hard about buying a site is all that it encompasses. It is like buying a house - it can look like a house on the outside but it might be on a good foundation or it might not. It might be maintained and it might not. And yet I always struggle with how to educate a client without overwhelming them with too much information. That is what has lead me to doing the very customized all inclusive sites. I try to make it easy on my clients so that they can focus on what they do best.

I talked to another client the other day who said his original website was cheaper than mine but he has to pay $100/month - not for updates but just to keep it online. To put up new content is additional - on top of the $100/month. The company rents him the content and wants a royalty to keep it up there. They essentially let him pick some colors and put in a few photos and then they put up generic content. Within two years he pays what he would have paid me. Unfortunately, his content isn't unique to him. If he stops paying the bill the whole site goes away. After your first year, I only charge you a small annual fee for hosting, URL rental, and ongoing registration.

I understand that what we offer isn't for everyone. You need to pick the web option that is easiest for you to grow your business.

Tax Rebates

Yesterday Congress passed and President Bush will sign a tax rebate plan. This is about as short sighted of an economic stimulus plan as you could possible come up with, but here are the details:

1) If you earn a paycheck and do not pay any income taxes you will receive $300 ($600 if married filing jointly)

2) If you earn a paycheck and actually pay income taxes you will get $600 ($1,200 if married filing jointly)

3) If you have children you will get an additional $300 per child

If you are married and your household income is over $150,000 there will be "no soup for you". After all you are already rich and do not need any economic help. (I'm of course being sarcastic) If you are single and earn more than $75,000 you also will not be receiving anything. The rebate starts to phase out at these income levels and unless you have children you will likely receive nothing.

This is a feel good rebate that most taxpayers qualify for. Instead of actually stimulating the economy by perhaps cutting the corporate rates to make them competitive with the rest of the world or extending the Bush tax cuts, Congress and the President took the easy way out and this move will do absolutely NOTHING to prevent a recession. But at least it's not a tax break for the rich.

Items Needed For 1040

The IRS has made it known that they will be stepping up their enforcement on tax returns. With that in mind, here's a list of information you should retain for your 1040:

INCOME ITEMS:

W-2's
1099's
K-1's

DEDUCTION ITEMS:

Medical Expenses (although very few people have enough to deduct)
Real Estate Tax Bill along with proof of payment
Mortgage 1098's
Charitable Contributions (The IRS has stated that you should either have a letter from the charitable organization OR a cancelled check)

The IRS has expressed concern regarding the overstatement of deductions. So it is especially important to have proof of the deductions you are taking.

Mike